Apparently this episode was inspired by 1961 Betty and Barnes Abduction case. Here's History Channel own article on the case:
The First Alien-Abduction Account Described a Medical Exam with a Crude Pregnancy Test
I don't want to go over it, as I assume it is known to most either through the books, articles, or through TV docudrama with super cheesy aliens and James Earl Jones as Barney Hill.
The UFO Incident (TV Movie 1975) - IMDb
I don't blame Dr Hynek for having second thoughts. He started as a complete sceptic and finished TBB as a completely UFO geek/believer, who went from a convention to convention, even trying to take over a civilian UFO investigation organisation known as APRO at mid 1980's when it's founders were passing away. He told them after reviewing some of the files that "You got many cases that we didn't at the Project Blue Book."
If the UFO bugs bites you, it changes you and you will find it hard to let go off those thoughts, just like it happened to Roy Neary at the Close Encounters of Third Kind. The 1950's, unlike in our modern society, the UFO encounters were reported in the news media and they were talked in TV in almost daily, if not weekly basis.
Back then it was all about the buzz. So think about it, what Mimi is asking is equivalent for someone to give up on participating in one of Musk's projects and expect to find something else, that's definitely has nothing to do with the space project. But Allan was willing to come home and leave all the weirdness behind, regardless of the buzz-factor.
If the Russian handler would have known about it, he would have asked Mimi to make her damnest to keep Dr Hynek in the project, instead of making her to milk for the information. What happened to the old rule of "Make sure your assets are happy and taken care of?"
Suzy played brilliantly the wounded woman story, even colouring with "second time he was drunk," party-line. Domestic Violence is true, and I've experienced it, even been part of the punished side. What I didn't see was her playing the Honey Trap and then drugging Mimi in order to get her compromised.
Back in the 50's a gay relationship would have ended careers or put you in wooden box.
What is the plan Thomas? You still need to get away from the freaking Wright-Patternson AFB even if you managed to somehow successfully make you way into the PBB offices. People are rarely super comprehensive when you point a gun on them.
As it was with Betty and Barney's case, it took a while before doctors listened. So I'm not surprised that the extreme pain creates extreme cases, like doing taking hostages in one of America's fortresses. The only way out from it is to not come out and end your days, or get the people to listen for your concern.
At the moment of watching I'll give 50 percent success rate, just because Dr Hynek was still in the office. For being the Indiana Jones of the ufology he would have never given up on an abduction case walking into the office, and asking him to help. Without out it Thomas would have been buried by the Army just to keep the incident off from the media?
Can you imagine what headlines the case would have made if it had got out? So I'm not surprised Suzy made a boardroom decision and made her the Handler.
New Hampshire isn't far away from one of the US UFO hotspots at Hudson Valley. It's just above the Boston. And the similarity to many other abduction cases is that Thomas was out, alone, relatively far away from the urban civilisation.
His car was experiencing EM interference before it was stopped. He saw a light in the sky and soon after they were chasing him. I was surprised that the producers made the lights to be alien drones and they were coming from the mothership. Just we are planning to do it ourselves in the military vehicles.
Thomas explained pretty well the experience that thousands of abductees share in their stories and later on in the hypnotic regression. What made the Betty and Barney case was the starmap, especially it showed exoplanets. Back then the whole notion of exoplanets was just "huuhaa nonsense." Now we know better, and it's not because of the UFO's, but because of the astrosciences that I'm interested on these cases. As a writer I cannot let go of a thought of an alien life, and it possibly visiting us.
To Dr Hynek the whole notion of Thomas being able to replicated the star chart he had stuck on office wall was too much of coincidence. The most intriguing detail about the Hynek's Star Chart is that it is the presentation of Plaidies - the Seven Sisters AKA the home of the nordic types. Not Ebens AKA the Greys. If you are interested you can easily spot in on the Nordic Sky. Just look up and you'll see a cluster of 9 blue stars near Ursa Major constellation.
I loved the play of Cpt Quinn pushing Thomas towards the edge of rage through his scepticism and short sightedness. The only answer was Thomas puzzle was to put him under a Hypnosis. In the BnB case that took years and several doctor sessions to happen. And now, it is a fairly standard practice with the positive abductee cases.
Note that there are those who think they were, but they weren't. Hypnosis in their case would be a bad thing.
How does Dr Hynek know how to do Hypnosis when he was originally an astronomer? Being a Doctor doesn't mean that you know everything and can just do it thing with snap of fingers. There are only very few people who are so super skilled, but Dr Hynek isn't one of them. It would be better if they would expand the cast to include other scientist then just Hynek.
Thomas' wife surely put Cpt Quinn in his place while Thomas recalled the encounter of third kind. Being a stubborn ******* dear Captain just inflamed the situation. But the important bit is that Hynek recognised Thomas telling the truth. Under a Hypnosis you cannot imagine, or lie. It just doesn't work that way. What you recall is memories.
I loved that Dr Hynek went ballistic on Captain face, for him being unsupportive and block-headed SoB. I loved even more that punches were thrown, while Thomas wife conducted a field surgery to get out the implant.
They look like that but those that they've taken out from the body, are usually much smaller, and often covered with a sack that you cannot penetrate with a surgical instrument, like a scalpel. But I love the Hollywood depiction on concept of an alien implant.
Cpt Quinn identified it as sharpnel or a flattened bullet. But if he really would have seen those types of bullets, he would have know that was nothing like it. The intriguing bit that they didn't get to conduct is the metallurgy. In the cases that involves alien implants, you'll find often metal alloys that are abnormal to our state of technology. You also find abundance of rare earth minerals, similar way that they are going in our mobile devices ... or RFID implants.
Those are usually size of rise grain, funnily same size as the alien implants. Rarely they are Hollywood big. Although the next case is because it's most like will be the famous 1952 Washington DC UFO incident.